


Stone Angels: Deleted Scenes

by PettyMindedSneak



Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Deleted Scenes, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:43:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9438653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PettyMindedSneak/pseuds/PettyMindedSneak
Summary: This is just a supplement to my Stone Angels series. I write a lot and change things a lot and sometimes things don't make it in, either because they just didn't fit or because I changed the plot so they don't make sense anymore. Here are a collection of those scenes, if you care about things like that.





	1. The Crib

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPOILER FOR SUMMER'S BLOOD: CHAPTER 22
> 
> A scene from when Phoenix was a baby

###  _Nathan_

                  She came into the room and I was caught, well and truly. She burst out laughing and I swung my arm in her direction, shushing her. I was grinning like mad though as she walked over to the crib, her hand clamped firmly over her mouth so as not to wake the baby.

                  “How did you even get in there?” She whispered.

                  “It was a sort of slow progression, really.”

                  “It worked though?”

                  “Oh yeah,” I laughed, looking down at the sleeping infant on my chest. “He’s out like a light. But I’m afraid that now I’m more or less trapped.”

                  “By Phoenix? You should be able to just set him down.”

                  “No, no, it’s not that,” I said, carefully examining how firmly wedged in my legs were. “If I move, I think I’m going to break the crib.”

                  “You’re _stuck_ ,” she said, now covering her mouth with both hands as she doubled over in silent laughter. I rolled my eyes and waiting until she was finished.

                  “Can you…take him?”

                  She wiped tears from her eyes with her sleeve and nodded, scooping Phoenix up off of me. “What do I do now? I can’t lift you, you’re too heavy.”

                  “Come here, let me get a hand on your shoulder.” I shifted my weight slightly and the crib let out a loud creak. “Aeva, I’m serious, I’m going to break this thing.”

                 She had Phoenix in her arms and so had resorted to biting her bottom lip to keep her laughter in. She let use me her shoulder to brace myself and watched me try to lift my body out. She was shaking her head, jerking her chin at the crib, but I didn’t understand what she was trying to tell me because she was still trying not to laugh. I just kept on with my plan and eventually managed to get a leg up and over the side. Once I had successfully extricated myself from his bed, I took Phoenix back, cradling him against my chest once more. As soon as the baby was out of her hands, Aeva dropped down and wrapped her arms around her knees, shaking with silent laughter.

                  “What so funny?” I whispered. She stood up and went to the side of the crib, gently lifting the bars. There was a soft _click_ sound and the bars slid down. I could have rolled out. “Are you kidding me?”

                  Her smile was huge as she took the baby and laid him down, shaking her head at me all the while. She snapped the bars back into place and we both left, heading for our room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nathan is very large and I like the idea of him jamming himself into teensy spaces


	2. Face Paint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPOILERS FOR SUMMER'S BLOOD: CHAPTER 21
> 
>  
> 
> Aeva celebrates her dad after his passing.

###  _Aeva_

                  I had never celebrated the holiday on my own before, but I knew the basics of the thing. I left my father’s photo on the easel and strung a marigold garland cross the top, putting two beers on the paint tray. It wasn’t much of an altar, but it would let him see what I had been up to since his passing. I opened one of the beers, clinked it with the other, and sat back in my chair. _Welcome back, Papá_ , I thought, taking a drink.

                  “The flowers are nice.”

                  I hadn’t heard Nathan come in. I turned around and he raised his eyebrows at my makeup. “Feliz Día de Muertos,” I said, raising my drink to him.

                  “Did you want to celebrate alone?”

                  “No, no,” I laughed, putting my hand out for him. He came forward and clasped it in his own, kissing my fingers. “No, come celebrate with me.”

                  “What do I do?”

                  “Just remember him,” I said, smiling. “Remember happy things about him.”

                  “I can do that,” he replied, leaning down to rest his chin atop my head. His hands ran the length of my two braids, stopping to toy with the marigolds I’d tied to the ends. “I like your face paint,” he murmured. I peeked over my shoulder at him and he had the flowers pressed to his nose.

                  “Can I paint your face?”

                  “What?” He said, chuckling a little. “You want to paint my face like yours?”

                  “Yeah, why not? Get into the holiday spirit.” He stared at me for a moment, a half smile on his face.

                  “Okay, you can paint me.”

                  I leapt up out of my chair and gestured for him to sit down. He did so as I gathered up my little Halloween makeup kit and some clean brushes. His curls were wild and tumbling over his forehead like they usually did, so I ran my fingers through them, pulling them back and away from his face. When the little ringlets were pulled straight, they were long enough to be gathered into a tiny knot at the back of his head. A few curls managed to escape here and there, but for the most part they were out of the way. It occurred to me as I fastened the hair tie that, in the time he was born, he might have worn his hair like that quite regularly.

                  I walked back around to face him, standing between his knees. Even sitting in my stool, he was just above eye level from me. He smiled as I stuck the end of a paintbrush in my mouth to consider him. With his hair out of his face, sitting in his crisp button down and black pants, he looked older and more refined. I could sort of see how, if he were dressed up a bit, he might look more appropriate at Viktor’s right hand. But, when left to his own devices Nathan looked young, kind, and elegantly disheveled.

                  “Will I look just like you?” He asked, interrupting my train of thought.

                  “No, you’ll be different,” I said, grinning around the brush in my mouth. He wouldn’t need a layer of white on his whole face, just across his lips. I applied it with my fingertips, marveling at how smoothly it went on. I barely had to blend it with his skin at all. Next, I swirled my brush in the black.

                  “Close your eyes,” I instructed. He smiled and shut them right away. I made wide circles around both of his eyes, trailing from his brow bone down around the bottom of his eye sockets. I filled them in and it was like I was painting stone. His face was utterly still as I worked and there were no bumps or flaws in his skin; no oil or dry patches to contend with. Just a perfectly smooth surface, like alabaster. I painted out his nose next and then extended the lines of his lips up into the hollows of his cheeks, adding little tick marks to look like teeth.

                  “Is it coming along?”

                  “Don’t move,” I scolded, dipping my brush again. I outlined the circles of his eyes with scalloped edges and created an ornate, spider web design across the smooth plane of his forehead. With a bit of red, I added a rose to his chin and stepped back. He was beautiful even when painted to look like death.

                  “All done?” He asked, eyes still shut.

                  “All done,” I agreed. He looked at me and his yellow eyes seemed to glow out of the black that surrounded them.

                  “Can I see it?”

                  “I don’t have a mirror in here,” I laughed. “But let me take your picture!” I snatched my old camera off of the drawing table and pushed him into a standing position.

                  “Be in it with me,” he said, smiling and holding out an arm. I set the camera on my stool, double checking that it would have him in the frame, and set the timer. I hurried over to him, taking my marigold garland off my neck and slipping it over his head. He set his arm around my waist, pulling me to him, and adjusted my braids so that they hung down my chest.

                  “Should we smile?” He whispered.

                  “Don’t use teeth!”

                  We were in position just before the flash went off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little melancholy here, but it makes sense. I tend to think of Aeva as having a lot of love for her culture, but also having a little distance. She was raised in a mostly white neighborhood and with mostly white friends; for her, her family is Mexico and Mexican culture. This is her low key version of a celebration that helps her feel connected to her dad.


	3. Nathan's Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPOILERS (kind of) FOR SUMMER'S BLOOD: CHAPTER 22
> 
>  
> 
> Nathan introduces Aeva to another vampire/human pair

###  _Aeva_

            “Aeva, love,” he whispered. He was close enough that I could feel his cool breath on my cheek, but I wasn’t ready to wake up yet.

            “Aev—ugh,” he grunted as I took a swat at where I guessed his head was. “You just put your finger in my nose.”

            “Sorry, my aim isn’t at its best when I’m _unconscious_ ,” I grumbled, rolling so my face went into the pillow.

            “If you open your eyes, you could aim better.” His lips were at the base of my neck, moving across my shoulders. I wouldn’t react to him, though the kisses were _very_ nice. He stopped abruptly. “Aeva, please get up. I don’t want to resort to desperate measures.”

            “What can you honestly do to get me out of bed?” I asked, turning my head to peek up at him. He was grinning down at me from under his halo of curls.

            “Hit me with your best shot,” I challenged. In a flash, he had me up and over his shoulder, tickling the back of my knees as he carried me to the bathroom.

            “You dirty bastard!” I huffed, trapped in my own mess of hair. He left me in there and I brushed my teeth and combed out my bed head. When I came back out, he was sprawled across the bed with his head lolling off the side, peering at me with an upside down smirk.

            “Now that you’re up,” he said casually. “How do you feel about going on a little trip?”

            “Nathan, you’re such a punk.”

            “Facts aside, are you up for it?”

            “Where are we going?”

            “D.C.”

            “Why?” I asked, walking around the bed to where his feet were dangling. He watched me crawl up and lay on top of him. I set an elbow on either side of his head, putting my hands in his hair, and he relaxed his neck to rest his head in my arms. His honey eyes were roving over my face, a little smile widening his lips. Slowly, one of his hands came up and stroked my cheek.

            “Nathan,” I said, whispering for no reason. “Why are we going to D.C.?”

            “Wha—oh!” He said, shaking his head a little and smiling sheepishly. “Sorry, I got distracted. I want you to come and meet some friends of mine.”

            “Since when do you have friends?”

            “And you said _I’m_ a punk,” he teased. “I have friends; don’t you worry about that. Would you like to go?”

            “Are we leaving Phee with Mamá?” I asked apprehensively. Nathan leaned up and gave me a kiss.

            “No,” he murmured into my lips. “He’s coming with. By the way, he only woke up once last night.”

            “Thank you.”

            “What?”

            “Thank you,” I repeated, kissing him again. “You always get up with him.” He dropped his head back onto my arms.

            “I don’t like waking you up in the middle of the night,” he said quietly, but his little smile said more.

            “What else?” I prompted. “Nataniel Björn Evanov-Wulff, give me the whole truth.”

            “I can get him to fall asleep,” he murmured. “I never thought I’d be able to do it, but I can cradle him just like you do and he’ll go back to sleep, right there in my arms.” I laughed and kissed his forehead. I’d long since given up on convincing Nathan that Phoenix liked being held by him as much as by me.

            “Go get him dressed while I shower.” I dropped his head and leapt down to the floor.

            “Are you going to get dressed too, or are you only showering?” He called after me. I rolled my eyes, but didn’t reply. I took a quick shower and when I got out, I saw clothes lying on the counter that I had not set there. I wrapped a towel around myself and padded over to find a note tucked in the neckline of a blouse.

            **We need to leave sometime today,  
so I picked something for you.**

           I hadn’t even heard Nathan come in and I couldn’t help but smile at his little jab at my time management. I set his note aside and looked over what he’d picked: my favorite dark skinny jeans and a brightly colored peasant blouse I’d never seen before. I was less irritated with him picking my clothes out as I tried on the new top. He knocked on the door as I fastened my jeans.

            “Are you dressed yet? There is a small, sleepy thing out here that would very much like to say good morning,” Nathan said from the bedroom.

            “You may enter,” I called imperiously. He opened the door, and offered Phoenix to me.

            “Your son, my love.”

            “Good morning my little bed head baby,” I cooed at him, attempting to smooth his hair. He smiled and gurgled at me. When I looked up, Nathan was grinning down at us.

            “Is what I put him in alright?” He asked. I looked at Phoenix’s little onesie.

            “Well, it’s a good start,” I laughed, “but generally people put pants and shirts on babies.”

            “I thought that too many layers would make him over heat,” Nathan explained, following me to the nursery. I shifted Phoenix onto my hip and opened his little dresser.

            “If you’re intending to hold him today,” I said over my shoulder, “he’ll need something more to wear. Now, based on this blouse, this is going to be a formal sort of meeting?”

            “I didn’t mean anything by the blouse,” Nathan said quickly. “I just thought you’d like it is all. You haven’t gotten anything new in a while.”

            “Nathan,” I laughed, turning back to the dresser. “I just got a house. I don’t really know what other new stuff I need.”

            “Do you not like it?”

            “No, it’s beautiful,” I replied, pulling a pale blue sweater over Phee’s head. Naturally, this sent his hair back into chaos. I tugged out some little black corduroys and slid them up his legs one handed.

            “When did you get so good at that?” Nathan laughed, watching as I slipped Phoenix’s socks on without looking. I shrugged and tickled Phee’s belly. He let out a loud peal of laughter and rocked backwards out of my grip so quickly I couldn’t stop him. I had just enough time to blink before Nathan had secured the dark haired boy in his arms. Phoenix didn’t seem to have noticed anything and just yawned and laid his head against Nathan’s shoulder, patting his face as he did so.

            “Nice catch,” I whispered. My heart was pounding; I’d almost _dropped_ him. I’d almost dropped my baby. Nathan’s hand stroked my face and I looked up at him.

            “It’s alright,” he assured me. “He’s fine and you didn’t do anything wrong.” I nodded numbly and set about finding Phoenix’s shoes. How was it that _Nathan_ was always the one freaking out about how he can’t take care of a baby when I was the one that seemed to do most of the messing up? Nathan had never almost dropped him, or accidentally scratched him with jewelry, or made his bottle too hot. It was only ever me that did stupid things like that. Phoenix was a helpless, defenseless, _blind_ baby; he couldn’t afford to have someone making mistakes with him, but I constantly was. Did that make me a bad mom? I mean, if I didn’t have Nathan around, would Phoenix have even survived this far?

            “Aeva.” Nathan’s arm wrapped around my chest from behind and his lips rested in my hair. “Stop. There was no way for you to know he was about to attempt a back-flip. You didn’t do _anything_ wrong.” I sighed and let my head fall back onto his shoulder. He kissed my throat and collar bone and I shut my eyes. After a second or two, I felt a gentle _pat-pat_ on my forehead. I opened my eyes and there was a tiny hand tapping at my face. When I turned my head, I saw that Phoenix had an expression of immense concentration on.

            “Hi baby,” I said quietly. He touched his palm to my mouth and I smiled into it. Then, out of nowhere, Phoenix let out an almighty screech and started shoving against Nathan’s arm.

            “Woah, woah,” Nathan said, not concealing his panic at all. “Where are you going?” I could see the battle going on: Phoenix was thrashing around and Nathan wanted to secure him to stop his flailing, but was unsure how to do so without breaking him. I stuck my arms out and Nathan handed Phee over with an apologetic look. Phoenix fell silent as soon as I had him. He put his head against my shoulder, put his little hand back on my mouth, and closed his eyes.

            “You are absolutely crazy,” I whispered to him. He grunted back, but didn’t stir. I glanced at Nathan, who was wide eyed; he nodded in agreement and set about stocking a diaper bag. After about five minutes, Phoenix was entirely ready and I was able to make a mad dash to my closet for shoes. I hurried back to my boys and after a quick breakfast, we were in the car and heading towards D.C.

            “So, what are these friends like?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder at Phoenix. He was still dead asleep in his car-seat. “Why are we meeting them?”

            “You wanted me to prove that this wasn’t the hardest thing anyone’s ever done,” Nathan replied with his own glance at Phoenix. “I think this will finally do it.”

            “So we’re going to meet some people with a harder life ahead of them than we have?” I laughed. A shadow flickered across Nathan’s angelic face.

            “Their life isn’t ahead of them at all,” he murmured. “They’re right in the thick of it.” I didn’t reply; I couldn’t think of anything to say. Something about these strangers’ situation really bothered Nathan; it weighed on the corners of his mouth, it pulled them down. I couldn’t help but notice, though, that even in his current state—wearing a simple red button down and black pants, his shoulders slightly hunched, and a deep grimace on his face—he was other-worldly. He still looked as though he’d tumbled out of some fairy tale or Greek myth. I would never get used to the way he looked; it was impossible to familiarize yourself with a fantasy, a story book character. But when he glanced over at me with his honey colored eyes his face lifted, and when he stole another peek over his shoulder at our sleeping son he positively lit up.

           For as hard as it was for me to believe, when Nathan did things like that, I knew he was telling the truth when he said how much we meant to him. No one could really blame me for doubting though; Nathan was nearly three hundred years old and had gone everywhere and met thousands of people. He was the most gorgeous man that has ever existed and absolutely anyone would want him, but it was me he’d decided on: the broke, pregnant Latina with an oddball family. And yet he said he loved me. He said he’d never loved anyone as much as he loved me. And when I had my baby, he said he loved him too. It was so difficult to trust that, but just looking at us made his scowl disappear. We were everything to him. What a terrifying idea.

           After a pretty long drive, we finally entered Washington, D.C. and Nathan wound expertly through the streets like he drove here every day. I could hear Phee grumbling in the back seat, the many turns and stops of residential driving having rudely awakened him. I reached back and squeezed his little foot. He poked out his hands at me and I touched my fingers to his. He immediately tried to jam my hand in his mouth.

            “Phoenix, you little whack job!” I laughed, trying to wrest my fingers from him. “Gah, you have a vice grip!”

            “Do you need any help?” Nathan offered teasingly. I whapped his arm with my free hand before Phoenix finally released my other so quickly that it shot back and I elbowed Nathan in the head.

            “Oh, I’m sorry!” I snorted, trying not to laugh and failing miserably.

            “Aeva, I swear, I’m going to have to tie your hands down if you can’t sit still,” he chuckled, grabbing both my wrists in one hand. “You’re going to get us all killed.”

            “Phoenix was the one that wouldn’t let go!”

            “Oh, sure, blame it on the baby.”

            “He did it on purpose!”

            “Yes, I’m sure he’s an evil mastermind.”

           We both glanced behind us at Phoenix, who was busy pulling on a sock until it suddenly popped off and he punched himself in the face. He looked entirely shocked at what had happened and slowly lowered the sock onto his little tray table as though it were a dangerous object.

            “Good to see he takes after his mother,” Nathan whispered. I busted out laughing and leaned back to check on Phoenix’s rapidly swelling eye. When I turned back, Nathan was pulling into a driveway in front of a sweet looking white house.

            “Is this is?” I asked taking in the neat little yard.

            “This is it,” Nathan affirmed. I nodded and got out, intending to retrieve Phee. I shut my door and looked up, jumping violently at the sight of Nathan beside me with the baby already in his arms.

            “I think I just peed myself a little bit,” I gasped, clutching my chest. “You have _got_ to quit doing that.”

            “Sorry,” he said, grinning down at me. “I have to move fast now.”

            “Imma move _your_ fast.”

            “That doesn’t make any sense,” he laughed.

            “You are the sweetest couple I’ve ever seen.”

           I looked around for who had spoken and saw a tall and incredibly beautiful woman leaning against the door frame of the house. She had radiant gold hair that hung down in curls all the way to her hips and she was wearing a long printed maxi dress, which hung on her narrow frame like it was designed especially for her. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the shadow of the eaves and even from where I was standing, I could see she had eyes like Nathan, though hers were a bit darker.

            “Annabeth,” Nathan said, smiling warmly at the woman. She smiled back and hurried down, arms wide for a hug. Nathan shifted Phoenix out of the way and held her to him; her head hit considerably higher on his body than mine did. When she pulled away, she caught sight of Phoenix and let out a little gasp.

            “Oh, he’s gorgeous, Nathan,” she said, touching one of his hands gently. “Looking at him, it’s hard to believe you had no hand in him.”

            “Annabeth,” Nathan said, still grinning. “I’d like you to meet Aeva, Phoenix’s mother and my…well…” He sort of trailed off and Annabeth made a shooing motion with her hands.

            “Titles don’t mean anything,” she laughed. “She’s yours. You’re hers. That’s all you need to say.” Then she turned her full smile on me and I was momentarily stunned. “It’s wonderful to finally meet you,” she breathed, taking my hand and shaking it firmly. She had a practiced grip; she knew how to handle humans. “Nathan’s told me so much about you and your son. And Thomas is so excited to meet you as well; he’s never known anyone else like him. Well, honestly, neither have I, and that’s why this is so great!” I shook my head a little to get the glitter she seemed to emanate out of my eyes.

            “What?” I asked. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

            “Well, surely Nathan’s told you?” She asked, peering over at him.

            “I wanted to keep it a surprise,” he shrugged.

            “Thomas is a human,” she explained. “I live here with him. He and I are the same as you and Nathan; entirely smitten.”

            “Oh,” I said, now appropriately shocked and intrigued. “That’s so cool. But, how are you getting around the Volturi?”

            “Oh, they don’t know about me. They don’t find out about vampires unless they do something stupid. But if they found out, Nathan promised to vouch for me,” she laughed. Even her voice was beautiful. “He’ll them I’m taking care of Thomas like he used to do for the old people.”

            “So Thomas isn’t old?” I asked.

            “Oh, no,” she giggled. “No, he’s only thirty three.”

            “Oh, well, forgive me, then,” I began awkwardly. “But then, why did the Volturi believe it? If Thomas isn’t old, why would they believe he needs your help?” There was no change in her at all except for a slight purse of her lips.

            “Why don’t you just come on in?” She said, still cheery as ever. “We’ll chat more inside. I’ve got lunch ready for you as well. Do you like egg salad?”

            “Oh, sure,” I replied, glancing at Nathan. Annabeth turned back towards the house and Nathan nudged me gently forward, telling me to follow. We walked through the door and into a cozy little living room separated from the kitchen by a breakfast bar. A plump, overstuffed sofa rested against the wall beneath the window with a low coffee table in front of it. To its right was a matching loveseat and both were angled at the large television fixed on the far wall. The carpet was plush and cream colored and Nathan plopped Phoenix on the floor, handing him a few odd toys from the diaper bag.

            “Would you like to eat in the living room or in the dining room?” Annabeth asked, pulling a platter of sandwiches from the little white fridge. Her small kitchen looked like a snap shot from the fifties, though not out of date. It seemed to have been planned that way.

            “Oh, I’m not partial,” I shrugged. Obviously the question was directed at me because being a vampire herself, she would already know that Nathan did not eat.

            “Can’t we eat outside?” A man’s voice asked from somewhere down the hallway that led off the kitchen. It was scratchy, like when you have a cough.

            “No, the clouds are supposed to shift,” Annabeth said glumly. “It’s going to be clear all afternoon.”

            “What a pain in the ass this good weather is,” the voice laughed. A moment later, a tall but stooped man came into the room. He had all the signs of having once been very handsome, but now he was very pale with shadows under his eyes to rival Annabeth’s. His face was drawn and thin and his reddish brown hair had a few streaks of grey to it. He put out a bony hand to Annabeth who took it and leaned in, giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek. She turned back to the sandwiches and he stepped behind her, threading his frail arms around her waist. I couldn’t help but notice that he had two very large purple blemishes—one on his forehead and the other on his left wrist—that looked like a cross between a blister and a scab. He looked over at me with surprisingly lively grey eyes and smiled.

            “You must be Aeva,” he said, offering a hand over the breakfast bar. I reached forward and shook it, determinedly not looking at the purple blotches.

            “And you’re Thomas,” I said, smiling a little. “I’m sorry, I’ve only heard just a little about you. Nathan’s been keeping this visit a surprise.”

            “Oh, don’t worry,” he laughed easily. “We’ll fill you in. Do you mind if we eat in the living room, by the way? It’ll give your little guy more room to play.”

            “Oh, sure,” I agreed, looking down at where Phoenix was. Nathan was sitting beside him, blowing in his ears while he tried to catch the little stream of air.

            “Alright, well, everything’s all set here,” Annabeth announced, sliding a plate with two sandwiches towards me. She handed another with three to Thomas, who pulled a glass from a cupboard and filled it with water.

            “Oh, that’s was rude!” He said suddenly, setting his glass aside. “What would you like to drink, Aeva? We have juice, milk, soda, beer, and water, obviously.”

            “Oh, um, water’s fine,” I shrugged. He nodded and filled another glass, adding ice to this one, and handed it to me. Annabeth had just pulled a solid blue pitcher from the fridge and retrieved a coffee mug.

            “Nathan, would you care for a cup?” She asked. Nathan smiled and shook his head and I watched with a sick sort of fascination as Annabeth poured herself a mug of thick, red blood.

            “Annabeth practices forage-and-storage,” Nathan explained. “She’ll hunt only once in a great while, but she drains the animals completely and stores the blood here in the house for easy access. That way, she can drink it continuously in small amounts rather than needing to hunt and wait like I do.”

            “Oh,” I said, stepping aside to let Thomas pass. He set his plate and cup down on the coffee table before taking a seat on the sofa next to Nathan and Phoenix’s spot on the floor. I walked around and sat beside him while Annabeth kicked her feet up on the love seat and snuggled in. Thomas was clicking his tongue at Phee, who was giggling at the strange noise.

            “Is it difficult?” He asked after a moment. He turned to look at me. “It is difficult to have a blind baby?”

            “Oh, um, not really,” I admitted. “It’s much easier than I thought it would be. I thought more things might spook him, but he hears really well, so it’s tough to sneak up on him.”

            “It might get tougher when he starts to walk,” Thomas said thoughtfully. “He’ll have to watch out for furniture and things. And how are you with him, Nathan?”

            “I’m alright,” Nathan said with a smile. “It’s very different, handling a baby. I have to be careful, but it gets easier every day; muscle memory just sort of kicks in after a while.”

            “How did he get a black eye?” Annabeth asked casually. I choked on my sandwich when I laughed. Thomas gave me a few good thumps on my back and I swallowed it down.

            “He hit himself,” I gasped, still laughing. “Right before we got here. He yanked his sock off and beamed himself right in the eye.”

            “Ouch,” laughed Annabeth. “Sounds like a rough ride.”

            “Yeah, it was chaos,” Nathan agreed.

           We ate in companionable silence for a few minutes before he and Annabeth struck up a conversation over the taste of refrigerated blood versus fresh, which I was not particularly interested in. Instead, I watched Phoenix play, shaking a teddy bear as hard as he possibly could. Distracted as he was, Nathan didn’t notice Phoenix give one particularly powerful jerk which sent him tumbling forward, but Thomas reached out a hand and grabbed his little head before it hit the coffee table.

            “Nice reaction time,” I said appreciatively as Thomas rolled Phee back into his sitting position. He just smiled in reply and ruffed Phoenix’s hair. Again, I found myself staring at his purple blotch.

            “Where did that come from?” I asked, pointing it out. “Is it a birthmark?”

            “No,” Thomas sighed, staring down at it. “It’s a lesion. I’ve got another one on my head and quite a few on my chest.”

            “What are they from?”

            “A little bitch of a disease called Kaposi Sarcoma,” he replied with a wry sort of smile. “It sort of comes with the territory.”

            “ _Tom_ ,” Annabeth hissed, glancing down at Phoenix. “Watch your language.”

            “No, don’t worry about it,” I dismissed. “He’s too young to know the difference.”

            “I’ll clean it up all the same,” Thomas smiled. “As I was saying, when you’re like me, the lesions are to be expected.” Before I could ask him what he meant, a little beeping noise sounded and he grabbed at something in the waist band of his pants.

            “I’ll go get it for you,” Annabeth said, moving to stand, but Thomas shook his head and dug into his pocket.

            “No, I grabbed one,” he muttered, pulling out a pill and popping it into his mouth. He took a swig of water and swallowed it down. “I knew I’d be needing one soon,” he sighed. He looked at me apologetically. “Sorry, AZT break.”

            “AZT?” I asked, my brain churning rapidly. Weight Loss. Fatigue. Lesions. AZT. “Do you have—?”

            “AIDS, yeah,” Thomas nodded sadly. “A recent acquisition, actually. It didn’t officially switch from HIV to AIDS until about three months ago.”

            “Oh, wow,” I whispered. “An apology seems really out of place here, but that’s all that comes to mind.”

            “I know,” he chuckled. “There isn’t a whole lot else you can say to someone when you find out they’ve got AIDS. Though I must say, you’re taking it like a pro. Most people will lean away or something like that. I half expected you to be horrified that I’d touched your baby.”

            “No, I know about AIDS,” I replied. “It’d be silly to worry about touching you. If it’s not too personal or anything, though, how did you get it?”

            “Oh, an old college roommate and a heroin addiction,” he sighed, sitting back against the cushions. “We shared needles a couple times and I tested positive for HIV in my senior year. I got clean once I left school, but you can’t get rid of the virus. I’ve been playing my little waiting game for about ten years. I’ve had Annabeth, here, for eight of them.”

            “Oh my goodness,” I said, shaking my head at the thought of it. “So, do you know how long—?”

            “As long as we can manage,” Annabeth replied. “We’re just doing our best right now to make sure he doesn’t get sick. We’re keeping him on treatment, eating right, getting as much exercise as he can stand.”

            “But even so,” I said baldly. “You’re not going to have forever like this. Well, you _could_ , actually. Why haven’t you tried being changed, Thomas?”

            “It’s not for me,” he sighed, giving Annabeth a gentle smile. “Don’t get me wrong; I would love an eternity with Anna, to just be together, but my family means too much. If I was changed, it would mean leaving them forever and then outliving every single member. My niece is only four; I could never _ever_ forgive myself if I were to outlive her.”

            “And so what is your plan, Annabeth?” Nathan asked quietly, though he was staring hard at me.

            “I don’t know,” she sighed. “Without Thomas, there really won’t be anything worth staying here for. I might find nomads and wander with them, but that would only last so long. Ultimately, I think I’ll go to the Volturi and make a request.”

            “So, you’re going to kill yourself?” I asked, shocked.

            “And so will I,” Nathan said sadly. I gawked at him. “Once you die, if Phoenix will have me, I’ll stay with him, and if they’ll have me, his children. I would let him pass me down like an heirloom, but if they’d rather have nothing to do with me, then I won’t butt in. I’ll go quietly to the Volturi, if I couldn’t convince Viktor to do it.”

            “It’s kind of sick, isn’t it?” Thomas muttered. “To hear them talk about it like that, like it’s nothing. But you’ve got to look at it like them; I mean, if they both died, how long do you think either of us would want to stick around? But we have reasons to stay put. I have my niece, and you have that little boy, and we both have families that need us. But those two? Their only ties to this place are us.”

            “No,” I protested. “No, Nathan has more ties than me. He has Phoenix too, and his father. He has Viktor. He would never kill you, Nathan. He wouldn’t.” Nathan looked down at his hands.

            “Forgive me, but you don’t know him, Aeva.”

           I went into a mild state of shock. I couldn’t take the knowledge that my choice to stay human for Phoenix ultimately meant death for Nathan. And the man sitting next to me! Poor Thomas! He was so close to dying already and he knew Annabeth would die soon after him. But in the meantime, she had to sit and watch the love of her existence deteriorate before her very eyes. I tried picturing Nathan sick like Thomas, but I couldn’t do it; my heart seemed to instinctively know that it would shatter if I did, and so it was protecting itself. But whether I could imagine it or not, Nathan was determined to kill himself once Phoenix and I were gone. Nathan would no longer exist, and he was sitting there, planning it out like it was some kind of sick party. _Happy suicide, Nathan._

 

 

 __

###  _Nathan_

  
 

           Aeva stayed silent for a long time and just stared down at Phoenix, but I could tell she wasn’t really seeing him. I was glad, at least, that she had not chosen to stare at me. If she had, I wouldn’t have been able to maintain my lie; I would have confessed.

           She was right about Viktor: he would never kill me. He would do everything in his power to keep me alive. There would be no way that I could ever beat him to the Volturi, no way that I could ever escape him. If only Aeva really _did_ know Viktor, she’d know that as long as he existed, so would I. But she didn’t know him and my plan was working. She was finally seeing the whole picture.

           I didn’t have a problem dying for Aeva; I was not scared by the idea of killing myself once she passed. I was more scared of the idea of living without her. I had finally gotten her to understand exactly what was going to happen to us, and now she had the choice to end things before it was too late. But in the mean time, she would get to know Thomas and Annabeth and realize that the prospect of raising Pheoenix was not nearly as horrible as what they were going through; living together, completely in love, while both secretly counting down the days. The thought of it was so oppressive, I could feel its weight in my chest. Goofing around in the car with Aeva seemed ages ago.

           I turned my attention to Phoenix as well and he was trying to pull the eyes off his teddy bear. I scooped him and the bear into my lap and he was immediately enthralled by my hands. He popped one of my thumbs into his mouth and began to gnaw on it while he bent and straightened the fingers on my spare.

            “So, you two,” Annabeth squeaked, also affected by the awkward silence. “How, um, how has raising the baby been so far? Do you like it?”

            “Easiest thing in the world,” Aeva muttered, still staring at the spot on the floor where Phoenix had been sitting.

            “Um, Nathan’s told us about your father, Aeva,” Thomas said quietly. This seemed to finally shake Aeva from her stupor. “How are you holding up?” He asked gently.

            “Not great,” she said with a shrug. “I’m just glad that I let Nathan convince me to go home. I might not have ever seen him again if I hadn’t.”

            “So, did he get the chance to meet his grandson?” Annabeth asked politely. Aeva shook her head, but I said it, just so she wouldn’t have to.

            “Phoenix was born the night Jaime died.”

            “Oh my god,” Thomas gasped. He put his arms around Aeva and hugged her to him. “Oh my god, I can’t believe that. That’s too much for one person to handle in a day.”

            “How did you handle it when you found out you had the virus?” Aeva asked quietly. Thomas released her slowly and looked down at his knees.

            “I put the test results in my pocket,” he whispered. “And I went to take the chemistry exam I had that afternoon. I just kept going. In my head, I couldn’t see what purpose it would serve to stop doing what I did normally; it certainly wouldn’t fix me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story ended up going in a different direction and I couldn't keep Annabeth and Thomas. If anyone read this and liked them, by all means, take them and run; write their story. 
> 
> I absolutely love Nathan and Aeva's interaction and their time with Phoenix at the beginning and I tried to find a place in the story to put it, and then I forgot about it, and by the time I found it again, it was too late to move things around to plug it in. I am always a fan of funny baby Phoenix and domestic Nathan and Aeva.


	4. Little Brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPOILERS FOR AUTUMN'S EYES: CHAPTER 13
> 
> In a different version of events, Aeva's second pregnancy ended like this:

###  _Nathan_

  
  
            She was holding on to my hands with all her might and I’d never seen such a scared expression on her face before. She looked close to tears.  
  
            “Nathan,” she said quietly. “If…if this doesn’t work…oh god.” One big sob shook her body. I hugged her to my chest.  
  
            “Don’t think like that,” I hushed. “This will work, Aeva. We can do this. You can do this.”  
  
            “And if I can’t?” she ploughed on. “Don’t act like it’s not a possibility; it could kill me. I just need you to promise me something.”  
  
            “What?” I asked, staring down at her now tear streaked face. “What do you need me to do?”  
  
            “I need you to take Phoenix,” she replied, nearly breaking down completely. “I need you to take care of him and…and this one.” She looked down at her belly. “Whoever it is.”  
  
            “Of course,” I said immediately. “I promise.”  
  
            Please, _please_ let things go the way they should.  
  
            Suddenly, Aeva jerked and her knees buckled. I caught her easily.  
  
            “What was that?” I asked, quickly checking to see if anyone else had noticed.  
  
            “It’s moving,” she panted. “Fast. It wants out. It’s…it’s pushing on me.”  
  
            “Stay still,” I said sternly.  
  
            “It’s not me!” Aeva protested.  
  
            “I’m not talking to you,” I whispered. Then I got down on my knees and put my mouth right against Aeva’s belly. “Stay still,” I commanded. “We’re going to get you out. You need to wait or you will hurt your mother. Stay still.”  
  
            “That worked,” she said, slightly stunned. “It stopped.”  
  
            “Good baby,” I praised. “Just hang in there.”  
  
            “Oh my god, Nathan,” Frida laughed, coming up behind me. “You are the cutest.”  
  
            “What makes him so cute?” Maria called, returning from the bathroom.  
  
            “He’s talking to the baby,” Frida laughed. “He’s telling it to ‘hang in there.’ You hang in there too, daddy,” she said, patting my shoulder.  
  
            “You’re both doing very well,” Maria beamed, taking Aeva’s hand. She put her other hand against my face. “You’re taking such good care of her. Thank you, Nathan. But it’s time for you to let us take her. The room’s all set.” I nodded and stood up slowly. I had wanted to kiss Aeva before she went, but Maria and Frida pulled her away too quickly. Before I knew it, the bathroom door had shut and I was alone.  
  
            “Here.” Something soft was stuck in my palm. I looked down at it and saw it was a small piece of raw meat. “It’s venison,” Viktor said. “For the baby’s mouth. I talked to Carlisle and he said that they used raw meat as a sort of pacifier for Renesmee in the first few days, during Bella’s change.”  
  
            “Thank you,” I murmured, staring down at the small, bloody lump. We stood in silence for a long while. Viktor was fidgeting; he seemed unsure of what to do. Then, all of a sudden, he was hugging me.  
  
            “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered thickly. “Of everything you’ve done. You’re so strong, Nataniel. You can do this.”  
  
            “But I’m scared,” I confessed. “I’m terrified. What if something goes wrong? There are so many things that could go wrong.”  
  
            “You have a history of beating the odds,” Viktor laughed, still holding on to me. “But if something should happen to Aeva, I’ll help you. I promised her I vould.”  
  
            “She made you promise too?” I half laughed, pulling away just a little. Viktor smiled at me.  
  
            “She made me promise,” he affirmed. “She’s really very brave, you know. She’s strong too. She’ll be fine.” He kissed my cheek and let me go, returning to his post by Phoenix. I stared at Phee; he was grinning ear to ear and had his hands clamped together in excitement. He was so ready to be a big brother. I glanced back at the bathroom door and was suddenly struck with a sickening feeling.  
  
            What was I giving him as a sibling? Whatever that baby was would not be Aeva’s fault. Any oddity, any dangerous trait, would have come straight from me. What if the baby hurt Phoenix? I would never forgive myself. And what an odd turn of events this was.  
  
            I could remember the clear, blinding hatred of Phoenix I’d had in those very first moments before meeting him. I hadn’t wanted him. I hadn’t wanted to share Aeva; I was being selfish. And here I was, not wanting this baby either; not wanting my own child, but not because I didn’t want to share my family. It was because I didn’t want to see them hurt. Was that selfish?  
  
            I listened to the sound of Aeva getting into the tub and Maria giving Frida instructions. Maria was going so slowly, trying to keep everyone calm, but Aeva was urging her to hurry up.  
  
            “Mamá, no, we need to do this,” she said. “We have to go now.”  
  
            “Hija, not yet. It’s too soon.”  
  
            “It’s not, I promise. I’ve had a baby before, I know what this feels like.”  
  
            “Well then push!” Maria commanded. I heard a growl. “Good job, hija! That was a good one!”  
  
            “Oh dear _lord_ that hurt,” Aeva panted. “Little baby, you had better thank me for this!”  
  
            “Push!”  
  
            “Hughh…..Uhhhh….Gahhh! Oh, that was progress. Oh, was that ever progress.”  
  
            “Can you feel it moving down?” Frida asked.  
  
            “YES I CAN FEEL IT MOVING DOWN!” Aeva screeched as she pushed. “WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK HURTS?”  
  
            “No se molesta a tu hermana, Frida!” Maria commanded. “We don’t have time for this!”  
  
            “Yeah, knock it off,” Aeva agreed. “I’m currently a sacred vessel of life, here!”  
  
            “Oh stop whining and give birth already,” Frida snapped. I heard a slap and a yell.  
  
            “Mamá she _hit_ me!”  
  
            “She’s having a _baby_!” Maria shouted. “Now push, Aeva!”  
  
            “Oh my GoooOOOOD!”  
  
            “I can see the head! Go again!”  
  
            “Hughhhh….Woah! WOAH!”  
  
            I burst through the door and the smell of blood hit me full force. I threw one glance over my shoulder to see Viktor covering his mouth and nose and holding his breath. I closed the door behind me and took in the scene.  
  
           Aeva was in the tub, nude except for a bra, and half way submerged in warm water. Her blood was what I was smelling; it had tainted her bath. She was clinging to the sides of the tub as hard as she could, her face contorted as she pushed, urging her swollen belly to release its prize. Maria and Frida were crouched beside her, patting her face and arms for encouragement. As soon as she saw me, Aeva gave one last extraordinary push.  
  
            “La cabeza!” Maria cheered. “All done, hija. I got it.” I glanced down and saw Maria pulling a tiny body with a head of dark hair out of the water.  
  
            “A boy!” Aeva laughed. “Oh, god, Nathan, it’s a boy.” I was floored. There he was, not two feet away; my son. Aeva and I dropped our smiles at the same moment. It was a _boy_.  
  
            “Maria, here, let me hold him,” I said quickly, putting out my hands. He was already sniffing the air over her wrist.  
  
            “No, it’s tradition to let the mother have him first,” She laughed, moving the baby towards Aeva.  
  
            “Mamá, do you remember our deal?” Aeva said before the baby had shifted an inch. “If you help with the birth, you follow our rules. Please, do what he says. It’s his, Mamá. It’s Nathan’s baby.” She used my name like a warning.  
  
            “You said Nathan wasn’t dangerous,” Maria said nervously.  
  
            “He’s not,” Aeva assured her. “But it took practice. And we’re not saying the baby is any sort of threat either, we just need to make sure.” Maria nodded seriously and placed the baby in my hands. I laughed a little as my fingers smoldered.  
  
            “He’s hot,” I said, glancing at Aeva. She grinned hugely. I returned my focus to the baby and looked him over. He was proportionate and had the proper number of limbs in all the proper places. The umbilical cord was very dark, almost black, and where it should still have been firmly attached at his bellybutton, was hanging by a thread. I gave it one gentle tug and it fell away easily. He was breathing steadily, but had yet to yell or cry. When I parted his lips, I saw that he had two rows of very small, very sharp little teeth. I slipped the piece of meat Viktor had given me into his mouth and he bit into it gratefully.  
  
            “Don’t open your mouth,” I whispered to him, too quietly for anyone else to hear. I saw his mouth shift as he clamped it shut and I kissed his forehead. I was already in love with him. “Thank you,” I murmured. Then I turned back to the rest of the room. They were all staring at me expectantly.  
  
            “He’s fine,” I said slowly. “But for today, let’s just keep him in Aeva or I’s hands.”  
  
            “Not Viktor?” Maria asked. “But he’s….like you, verdad?”  
  
            “Same animal, different breed,” I replied. “Just me and Aeva.” She nodded once and moved over so that I had a clear path to Aeva. I went over to her and kneeled down as Frida handed me a towel to wrap my son in. Once he was secured, I placed him in Aeva’s arms and began to really look at him. He was beautiful.  
  
            He had Aeva’s dark hair, but it was tightly curled like mine, and he had my jaw, but Aeva’s mouth. My nose perched on his face between her eyes. He was pale, just like me, but with a lively flush underneath that turned him pink. Just looking at him you could tell there was no way he could be anyone else’s. He was undeniably our little boy.  
  
            “Hey, little guy,” Aeva cooed, beaming at him. “It’s nice to meet you. You’re gorgeous, by the way.” He opened his eyes at the sound of her voice and all three of us gasped. He was in awe of his mother and just stared at her. We were shocked by his eyes: they were black, just like Aeva’s, and they were breathtaking.  
  
            “You have your mother’s eyes,” I told him with a half smile.  
  
            “Hi, I’m your mother,” Aeva laughed, giving him a little wave. He lit up when she laughed and let out a little giggle of his own. It was like a wind chime or the ring of crystal.  
  
            “Hijita,” Maria said looking over our shoulders. “He’s perfect. He’s…perfect.”  
  
            “He gets that from his dad’s side,” Aeva laughed. “If it was from us, he’d be crazy.” Maria laughed and swatted Aeva playfully.  
  
            “Nathan, why don’t you take him so we can clean her up?” Holly suggested. “Maybe you can think of a name for him.”  
  
            “Phoenix already picked one out,” I replied. “This is baby Holden.” Holden gurgled when I said his name. I took it as approval. As the ladies helped clean Aeva up—I was looking anywhere but at her, per her request—I found myself totally wrapped up in Holden.  
  
            He had wriggled a hand out of the towel and was grasping my finger, just gurgling away, telling me anything his little mind could think of, but never once opening his mouth. His extraordinary black eyes seemed to be memorizing my face. After about five minutes, he began to grimace and pucker his little cherry lips.  
  
            “Is it dry?” I asked. He opened his mouth with a little ‘pop’ and on his tongue was a dried, gray lump that had once been deer meat. I removed it carefully and threw it in the trash. He put his fingers in his mouth and just continued to stare at me. I kissed his forehead again and he smiled and sighed sleepily. While I rocked him, he fell asleep in my hands.  
  
            “Frida’s right,” Aeva said as she wrapped her arms around me. “You are freaking adorable.” I turned to look at her and was shocked by what I saw. She looked so much healthier; glowing, even. Her hair was shinier, her eyes were brighter and her baby-belly was already going down.  
  
            “Shouldn’t you be exhausted?” I asked, kissing her cheek. She leaned her head on my shoulder.  
  
            “Probably,” she admitted. “But I feel very…full. Full of everything: food, energy, blood. That’s what I can feel the most; I can feel my blood. It’s a really weird sensation.”  
  
            “Write it down,” I suggested. “We can give Carlisle a childbirth play by play.” She laughed and stroked Holden’s cheek.  
  
            “I can’t believe we did it,” she sighed. “You have a kid.”  
  
            “We have two,” I corrected.  
  
            “I have two,” she countered. “I have been mother and mommy the entire time. Now, you are officially more than ‘daddy’. You are a biological father. How’s it feel?”  
  
           I turned back to look at my tiny son again. He smiled up at me and pulled his hand out of his mouth, reaching toward my face. “It feels…real,” I laughed. “Very, very real.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of things to say on this one. First off, you might recognize the words said when Aeva is starting to push from Phoenix's birth. That's because, in the version of the story where baby Holden is born, Nathan missed Phoenix's birth completely. 
> 
> Secondly, it made sense to me that Nathan and Aeva would opt for a home birth because they weren't at all sure how the process would go or what the baby would be like. 
> 
> Lastly, removing Holden from the story was one of the most heart breaking things I've ever had to do. I loved Holden a whole hell of a lot. He was a spunkier counterpart to Phoenix and the pair of them were the absolute sweetest brothers. Nathan also loved being a father to both of them, but he couldn't stay. For all of the reason that Nathan and Aeva obsessed about in the actual story, they couldn't raise a Halfling and have Phoenix or the family meet him. 
> 
> Holden didn't vanish completely, though. Some Holden moments, like the birth dialogue, went into Phoenix's story. Some of Holden's traits also got split into Phee's cousins Lupe and Lola. He's still around and I might write another story where he gets to be the focal point. He just didn't fit in this one, no matter how cute he was.


	5. Little Sister

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPOILERS FOR AUTUMN'S EYES: CHAPTER 13
> 
> The story was going to go a very different direction. This was part of it; here are some scenes to explain:

###  _Aeva_

            I knew it was insane. I knew he would tell me as much as soon as I asked, but I needed to ask. I just needed to know for sure what he thought of the idea, because if there was any chance he and I might have more children, I wanted use it. I wanted a big family, a full family. I wanted Phoenix and Holden to have the chance to be big brothers. I wanted Nathan to be a father as many times as he could be. I wanted to be a mother again because there was some part of me saying I should be.

            “Nathan,” I said, coming out of the bathroom. He was in bed, reading.

            “Aeva,” he replied, closing his book. He flipped the blanket down on my side and patted the bed. I climbed in obligingly and pressed myself to his side.

            “I have a question,” I said, my palms starting to sweat.

            “Okay.”

            “And it’s going to sound crazy.”

            “…Okay.”

            “Just hear me out.”

            “Okay.”

            “Nathan,” I said, sitting up and looking him in the eyes. “Would you want to have another baby?” His eyebrows shot up.

            “What?”

            “Because I do,” I sighed. “And I know Holden was scary. He was a scary baby to have, but there’s just…something in me that is ready for another baby.”

            “Does it need to be mine?” He asked, also sitting up. “Because I agree with you, Holden was terrifying. Not that I don’t love him to pieces, but I thought I was going to lose you when we first found out.”

            “And that’s the thing,” I replied. “We didn’t know it could happen. But now we do. I got through Holden still human, so we know that can be done too. We could actually be prepared this time if we tried again.”

            “Does it need to be mine?” He repeated.

            “No,” I replied, a little deflated. “We could certainly adopt. I just…”

            “What?”

            “I want it to be yours…but it doesn’t have to be. I mean, it’d be yours anyways,” I laughed. “Just like Phoenix is yours. Phoenix is one hundred and ten percent yours. We could just as easily adopt another baby.”

            “But we can’t,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “We really can’t, because they’ll notice me. And whether the kid has a problem with it or not won’t matter because the adoption agency will notice when they do their checkups. Unless you’re up for quite literally stealing a baby and running away, we can’t adopt.”

            “Oh,” I said, nodding. “Okay. Maybe we can just get a dog or something. I bet the boys would just go nuts for a puppy.”

            “I bet they would,” he agreed, smiling a little. “God, they would love a puppy.”

            “They really would. A big one, so they could climb on it. Maybe a lab.”

            “A Labrador would be nice,” he said as I settled back down against him. “That’s a good family dog.”

            “It wouldn’t be hard for you? I mean to have an animal around?”

            “I’m sure I would manage.”

            “Oh good,” I said. “Then we’ll just get a dog.”

            We sat there for a moment.

            “Aeva?”

            “Yes?”

            “You don’t want a dog, do you?”

            “Not even a little bit,” I laughed.

            “How long have you been thinking about having another baby?”

            “For a while,” I sighed. “I guess, in retrospect, it hasn’t really even been that long. Just a few weeks.”

            “It’s a big decision,” he said, kissing my head. “A really, really big decision. There are a lot of safety issues to consider.”

            “I know. I’m probably not giving those enough weight. I know I’m sugar coating the idea in my head.”

            “And you have to consider lifespans.”

            “What?” I sat up again.

            “Life spans,” he sighed. “What are we going to do? I mean, originally, the plan was you stay human and we raise Phoenix—who also stays human—together. Then you two die and I figure out where that leaves me. Now with Holden, you and Phee stay humans and I live on with him indefinitely. What would the plan be with the new baby? The three of us live on forever?”

            “Would that be completely terrible?” I asked, honestly curious. “Do you not want to do that?”

            “I do not have a problem with it,” he said very sincerely. “I think it’s the absolute best option. I would hate to lose you and Phee, but it’s part of your lives. It’s part of the deal: I get to have you, but only if I lose you eventually. At least I would get to keep Holden and see him live forever. He looks like Phoenix and he has so much of you. I’m sure the next baby would be just the same. The pair of them could be reminders for me of the life we all had together.”

            “What makes it a bad plan?”

            “That will be two children living out an eternity without their mother.”

            “And I can’t change,” I said, pulling my knees up to my chest.

            “You _could_.”

            “I can’t,” I repeated. “That would mean Phoenix aging alone. That would mean me outliving him. I could never. I just couldn’t.”

            “I don’t think you understand how quickly your life will have passed us by,” Nathan said gently. “Holden and I. When you quite literally have an eternity to live, the span of a human life is only a moment. For a short while, Holden will have had more years with you than without. But sixty years later, that won’t be true. And what does sixty years look like out of three hundred? A thousand? Two thousand?”

            “What does it look like out of two hundred and seventy nine?” I asked.

            “Like a culminating point,” he replied, leaning down to give me a kiss. “But ultimately, this will be a brief love affair.”

            “That’s awful.”

            “A long life is not always a good thing,” he sighed.

            “And that’s what Holden’s life will be like?”

            “Yes.”

            “But love could happen for him, right? He could meet another Halfling? A female vampire if nothing else?”

            “Yes, he could. Or he could meet a human, like I did.”

            “And the next baby,” I said, looking down at my stomach. “That would be its life too?”

            “Yes.”

            “But you would all have each other,” I replied, looking back up at him. “That’s what I want.”

            “Holden and I will have each other now.”

            “But just think of you and Viktor,” I replied. “How happy were you to just always be with him? Always you and your father. Didn’t you ever want a sibling?”

            “I had friends.”

            “But not always,” I countered. “You and Edward knew each other and how long has it been since the two of you have really been together? How lonely were you; be honest.”

            “Very.”

            “Holden could have a sibling. Someone that he could be with forever that’s like him and that will always be there.”

            Nathan put his head against the head board and thought this over.

            “I did want a brother,” he said after a moment. “I don’t know. It’s…a good point. A really good point; a better point than is possible for you to understand. But there are still so many other things. It would be another child that will be full grown in seven years. It would be something else to explain to your family and to the world around us. Another thing to hide from the Volturi.”

            “I know,” I sighed. “I know. But if the worst comes, Phoenix will go with Frida and I’ll die and you would stay with Holden. Maybe the other one too if we have one. That’s been the plan for a long time now.”

            “I know. But plans look different when you have to put them in action.”

            “I know.”

            We stayed silent for a long time.

            “Can I tell you something?”

            “Of course,” I said, looking over at him. Nathan had a faraway expression.

            “I like that Holden has your eyes,” he said. “Because I know that it means that as long as he’s alive, I can see you. I can see that bit of you. I see you all over him. You and Phoenix both. He’s going to be my way to keep you two with me.”

            “Nathan,” I whispered, taken aback. “I…wow.”

            “I want to tell you yes,” he sighed. “I want to tell you I think we should have another baby too because then I would have someone else with you and Phoenix written all over their face and I could take them with me too. But it’s such a selfish reason to say yes.”

            “There’s always Renesmee,” I said seriously. “If nothing else, Holden can be friends with her and we can let this drop. I don’t want this to tear you up. I’m sorry I said anything, Nathan. I can’t stand seeing you think about things like this.”

            “I think about them every time you sleep,” he replied. “I imagine what I’ll do when you don’t wake up.”

            “Nathan, please stop.”

            “No,” he said, sitting up. “No, I need you to hear this. I get to have your whole life, Aeva. I get all of it. You only get to have a tiny part of mine. It’s the most important part—the best part—and I wish that were enough to make it even, but it isn’t. I get to take our son with me. Holden will stay with _me_. I’ll be with Phoenix longer, too. You’ll lose out on them both. I get to have so much that I would do anything to give you a part of me; something you could keep. I’ll do it for you, Aeva. We can have another baby if that’s really what you want, but I need you to think about the baby’s life too. Because it isn’t just us, Aeva.”

            “We aren’t going to have one if that’s your only reason,” I replied firmly. “If you would bring a child into this world just because I want to have one, or because you want Holden to have a companion, or because you want to remember Phoenix and I better, we’re not having one. I want a baby because I want that life to exist. I want to give it a life and take care of it and learn who it is. If you say yes for any other reason than that, we’re not going to have another one.”

            He stared at me for a long time. “I’m scared.”

            “Me too,” I laughed. “I’m terrified.”

            “I want you to be happy.”

            “I am. I want you to be sure.”

            “I want _you_ to be sure,” he laughed. “I mean, after Holden…this crossed my mind. I didn’t come up with my argument on the spot.”

            “What made you think about it?”

            “Seeing Holden. Seeing him with Phoenix. I just…I want to give the two of them the world. I want them to have and do and see everything. And I just feel like after all of that, there would still somehow be something left over. Something in me that someone else could have had. That I want someone else to have.”

            And then I kissed him. I didn’t know how best to tell him that he had said out loud what I had been feeling for two years. I just kissed him, over and over again. When I finally pulled away I said the only thing I could think of.

            “I love you.”

###  _Nathan_

            She laid her head in my lap and I placed a hand on her belly.

            “Aeva doesn’t usually have an ‘A’ in Spanish.”

            “Hmm?” She asked, not opening her eyes.

            “Your name is Spanish,” I replied. “In Spanish, ‘Aeva’ is usually just E-V-A.”

            “My parents knew people in America had been naming their little girls Eva,” she said, smiling a little. “They put the ‘A’ in so that people would say it right.”

            “Aeva with an ‘A’ is a German name.”

            “Really?” She said, opening her eyes. I smiled and nodded. “I’m German like you then,” she laughed. I leaned down and kissed her head.

            “Not quite.”

            “Is Holden German?”

            “No.”

            “Is Phoenix?”

            “It’s not a typical name there, no,” I laughed. “But the word is pronounced the same in English and in German.”

            “What should we name this one?” She asked, looking down at her belly. I drummed my fingers on it.

            “Something Spanish?”

            “You pick,” she said decisively. “I named Phee, and he named Holden. You name this one.”

            “I agreed with Holden.”

            “We all did,” she laughed. “But you decide for this one.”

            “Am I supposed to pick now?”

            “Yes.”

            “But we don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet.”

            “It’s a girl,” she said, smiling up at me. “I can tell.”

            “Oh, you can, can you?” I laughed. She nodded. I looked over at her belly and felt a nudge against my palm.

            “Are you a little girl, baby?” I asked it. “Are you my daughter?”

            “Yes,” Aeva answered in a high pitched voice. I laughed and kissed her and then her belly.

            “Should I name her after my mother?” I asked. “Anya?”

            “If you want.”

            “She could be Natalia, like my sister.”

            “Okay.”

            “She could be Hilde, like my ex wife.”

            “No, not Hilde.”

            “Fair enough,” I laughed. “How about Leona? It means Lioness.”

            “Leona is nice.”

            “Esther. Sascha. Minna.”

            “Minna’s nice.”

            “Sonia.”

            “That’s pretty.”

            “Colette?”

            “Stop giving me options,” she sighed. “Pick a name that you love. Or do you not have one?”

            “I do,” I admitted. “It doesn’t sound terribly exotic, like Cvete or Marijke. But it is very German.”

            “What is it?”

            “Cora.”

            “Cora?” She said, glancing at her belly. “Cora.” She put her head back down and looking at the ceiling. “Cora.” She wrinkled her nose. “Whew, Cora needs a bath. Cora, get down from there! Oh, Cora, did you have a bad dream? Well, my daughter Cora just got straight A’s for the third year in a row.” She smiled. “I like Cora.”

            “I like it too.”

            “What made you think of it?”

            “I’ve just always liked it. One of the first people whose history I heard was named Cora. She was a grandmother to seven girls.”

            “Cora.”

            “Cora.”

# ...

            “Fucking shit!”

            “Aeva, stop swearing.”

            “Shut the fuck up, Nathan, I swear to god!”

            “Aeva!”

            “God _damn_ it, Cora! Come _on_!”

            “Now don’t take it out on the baby…”

            “Don’t you tell me what I can and can’t do. I am giving _birth_. You shut your mouth.”

            “I don’t think it’s really that bad.”

            “Well the second you sprout a vagina and squeeze our offspring out of it, I’ll take that into account.”

            I just sat back on my heels and laughed. I had to. Soon Aeva was laughing too.

            “I’m sorry for my outbu—ahh! Here we go! It’s go time!”

            “What?” I said, getting back up on my knees. “Like now?”

            “Yeah, right now,” she said, gripping the sides of the tub. She clenched her teeth and her face started to turn red. I didn’t know what was going on until I saw red in the water.

            “Oh my god, you’re doing this!” I laughed. “Aeva, you are doing this all on your own!”

            “I’m aware!” She gave another big push.

            “Aeva, I can see the head!” I put my hands into the water, just like I’d seen Maria do when Holden was born. Aeva gave another big push and suddenly, my baby’s head was in my palm.

            “Almost there, honey,” I cheered. “One more and you’re there.”

            “My mom is gonna be so mad!” With a final huge push, the baby was out. I pulled it out of the water immediately and handed it to Aeva so I could get the towels.

            “Hi honey,” Aeva laughed, staring at our new born. “Oh my goodness, you are here already.”

            “Lift your head,” I instructed. She did so and I set a towel under her neck to make her more comfortable. Then I turned to the baby. Its hair was thick and grown in, dark and straight. Its eyes were shut, but I knew their shape. The baby had eyes like Phee. Slowly, the lids fluttered and open and there were two big blue eyes staring up at us. She was breath taking.

            “Wow,” Aeva breathed. “Look at her.”

            “Her?” I asked, checking for myself. Sure enough, Aeva was holding a baby girl. She’d been right.

            “Hello, Cora,” I said, smiling. Cora smiled back.

            “Help me up so the boys can meet her.” I took Aeva’s hand and pulled her up and she wrapped Cora in a soft towel. Again, the change in her was miraculous. Her skin was brighter, her hair was shinier, and her eyes were positively alight. She toweled off and pulled on her pajamas, all while holding onto Cora. Then I went to the door and opened it slowly, poking my head out.

            “Hi daddy,” Holden said. The pair of them were laying on our bed, sprawled out as wide as they could go.

            “How did it go?” Phoenix asked, lifting his head. I had to laugh.

            “It went really well.”

            “Mom said bad words.”

            “I know, she’s sorry.”

            “She didn’t sound sorry.”

            “Is the baby bad?” Holden asked. “Because it hurt momma?”

            “No, it’s not bad,” Phoenix replied for me. “You hurt momma too. So did I. Babies hurt their mommas to test how much they love them.”

            “Woah, mom did three! She must love that baby a lot.”

            “She loves us all a lot, right?”

            “You’re right,” I agreed, smiling at them. “Do you want to come meet the baby?”

            “Is it a boy?”

            “No.”

            “Then yes!” Phoenix shouted. I laughed and opened the door all the way. The pair of them came in, Holden leading his brother.

            “Oh wow!” He exclaimed as soon as he saw Cora, dragging Phee to her. “Phoenix, there’s really a baby in here!”

            “Let me see!” Phoenix said, extending his free hand. Aeva, who was sitting on the floor, led his hand to Cora’s face. He brushed his fingers through her hair and around her eyes and nose and touched her little pink lips.

            “Why do I know her already?” He asked.

            “She looks just like you!” Holden giggled. “She’s got blue eyes, Phee. She copy catted you.”

            “You copy catted me too,” Phee laughed. “Your face is like this.” He moved his hand to Holden’s face to verify his claim. “Yup, she looks like us.”

            “Gentlemen,” Aeva said happily. “This is your new sister, Cora.”

            “You were right!”

            “Mom’s always right,” Phoenix said, rolling his eyes. “Always.”

            “Darn straight,” she laughed, leaning forward and kissing his cheek. “What do you think of her?”

            “I like her,” he said, putting his hand back on her face. She wriggled a hand free and took hold of his fingers. “She’s sweet.”

            “She’s real cute,” Holden said, putting his face very close to hers. Her eyes got extremely wide. “She smells good too.”

            “I vote we keep her,” Phee said imperiously.

            “Me too,” Holden agreed. “Is that okay with you guys?”

            “Fine by us,” I laughed, kneeling down beside them. Aeva looked at me and suddenly, her jaw dropped.

            “Oh my goodness, Nathan! Hold her!”

            “What?”

            “Daddy didn’t get to hold Cora yet,” Aeva said to the boys.

            “Take her!” Holden cheered. “She’s real, real cute! You’ll like her a whole lot!”

            “Do it daddy!” Phoenix encouraged. I laughed and put out my hands. Aeva handed her over and I held her to my chest. I was struck by how far I’d come from the first time I held Phee. I smiled at him and then thought of when I’d first held Holden, how I’d fallen in love with him right away. Now I turned Cora so I could see her and there were those bright blue eyes peering back up at me. She was Aeva’s daughter, through and through. But her tumbling curls declared that I had most definitely had a hand in her. She was phenomenally beautiful and she was just staring at me. Then she reached her hand up. I leaned down and kissed her palm and she rubbed her hand along my cheek and across my chin. Then she smiled.

            “Hi Cora,” I whispered. She gurgled in response and tapped my mouth again. I gave her little hand another kiss and she pulled it back, looking at her palm to see if she could find it. I thought that I knew what it was to be a father. I thought between Phoenix and Holden, I understood everything about it. But seeing Cora—seeing my daughter—in my arms, filled in the bit that I’d never known was missing. I looked up at my two boys and my wife and I knew, I just _knew_ , this was it. This was what the little voice in the back of my head had been telling me about. Our family was officially completed.

            “Alright,” I said. “Who’s next?”

            Holden immediately shoved Phoenix to the ground and declared himself next in line. Aeva made him apologize and then marched them both out into the bedroom and up onto the bed. Phoenix held her first and his lap was barely big enough.

            “She’s heavy,” he said, bouncing her a little. He put his face down near hers and kissed her forehead. She made an approving noise.

            “She likes you,” Aeva said, nuzzling into his neck. “She thinks you’re the bees knees, Stinky Feet.”

            “Hi baby Cora,” he murmured. “I’m your big brother Phoenix. I’m gonna take care of you, okay? You’re gonna be just fine.”

            “Now me!” Holden demanded. I laughed and helped Phoenix hand her off. Holden was rigid with excitement, but curled around Cora as soon as she was in his lap.

            “Oh, I just love her,” he sighed, rocking her gently. “She’s the best little sister a guy could have.”

            “You’re a mush ball,” Phoenix laughed, leaning into Aeva’s arms.

            “I’m your other big brother, Holden,” Holden explained. “I’m new at being a big brother, but Phoenix is very good at it. I bet he’ll teach me.”

            “HIJAAAAAA!”

            “Oh gosh,” Holden said, looking towards the door. “Abuela’s here.”

            “We better hide Cora quick!” Phoenix whispered.

            “Phee!” I laughed, swatting him gently. Then we heard Maria thundering up the stairs, followed by Frida, Lidia, Manuel, Miguelito, and all the others. Viktor was even in the back helping Doña Luisa battle the stair case. Phoenix and Holden were very excited to introduce their cousins to Cora.

            “She looks like tia,” Lupe said, peering down at the baby.

            “She looks like us!” Holden said, smiling broadly.

            “But you’re boys,” Chuy pointed out. “She can’t look like a boy if she’s a girl.”

            “Sure she can,” Phoenix replied.

            “How would you know,” sneered Mercedes.

            “Ah, children,” Heather sighed, covering her daughter’s mouth. “Such sweet little things.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't like what happened with Bella's pregnancy. I wanted to prove a person could stay human through it or that it could have happened differently. In this version of the story, I felt it was important to Aeva to prove a human could stay human through a birth like this twice. Ultimately, the version of the story I went with was that having a baby like this was illogical and that not having one was a better outcome for this specific pair.


	6. Jason's Fiancee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SPOILERS FOR AUTUMN'S EYES: CHAPTER 14
> 
> Another version of events when Jason turned back up.

###  _Aeva_

            “Nathan, _what_ is wrong with you?” I demanded. He’d stopped for like, the twentieth time, and was just peering around.

            “That _smell_ ,” he hissed. “Where is that coming from?”

            “I swear to god, Nathan, if you go hunting in this park—,”

            “No, it’s not that,” he replied, smiling a little. “It smells awful. Like a wet dog, and sweat, and dirt, and…and… _dog_.”

            “You mentioned that one,” I laughed, glancing back to Phoenix’s class. They all had books in their laps. If they were working on Braille, Phee would no doubt be the star pupil.

            “A wolf?” Muttered Nathan.

            “Any chance of an explanation?”

            “Look at the woman over there, behind me,” he instructed. I did so and saw a woman with short black hair. Her skin was brown with more of a reddish tint than mine, but she was too far away for me to notice much more than that.

            “Okay, I see her,” I replied. “Where’s the wolf?”

            “ _She’s _a wolf,” Nathan explained. “That woman can turn into a wolf. She’s part of a pack of shape shifters from _La Push___. She’s from Jacob’s pack; her name is Leah.”

            “How do you know tha—oh, never mind. Your thingy; the super power. She can shape shift?” I asked, glancing over at her again. She was waving at someone as they approached. “I wonder if _he_ knows she’s a wolf.”

            “Jacob?”

            “No, that guy,” I laughed, nodding in the direction of Leah’s friend. They were both still too far away for me to see them clearly. Nathan glanced behind him and then took my arm, hurrying towards Phoenix’s class.

            “We should go,” he muttered. “It’s rude to eavesdrop.”

            “But I can’t hear anything they’re saying,” I laughed.

            “I can. Please, let’s just go and get Phoenix.”

            “Nathan,” I said, pulling my arm from his grip. He could have easily forced me to keep walking, but he wouldn’t dare to. Instead, he looked at his feet. “What’s going on?” I asked.

            “She’s imprinted on someone,” he muttered.

            “So?” I laughed, looking back at Leah. “Good for her. I hope they’re—…”

            I never finished that sentence. I was staring at Leah and her friend, totally frozen. I couldn’t see his face, but I didn’t need to. I knew the slope of his shoulders; the muscles of his arms; the movement of his hands; the shine of his red hair. His damned red hair. Leah leaned forward and kissed him and I turned slowly to look at Nathan. His yellow eyes were bleeding apologies.

            He had known. When he’d looked at Leah, he’d known who she’d imprinted on. He’d obviously intended to keep it a secret from me; he hadn’t known Jason would actually show up here.

            “We should tell Jacob,” I said quietly. Nathan looked confused.

            “Why should Jacob know?”

            “I just think it would be a good thing for him to know that Leah is in love with Phoenix’s father,” I replied conversationally. “Maybe we should tell Leah too.”

            “You know, he knows she’s a wolf,” Nathan said quietly.

            “We should let her know that Jason’s one too.”

###  _Nathan_

            The kids were just closing their books as we reached them. Aeva ducked out from under my arm and went straight to Phoenix. She gave him a hug and I laughed as he surprised her with a big kiss.

            “Where’s Phee?” A little voice asked from my shoulder. I glanced down and saw Holden’s big brown eyes looking up at me. He smiled sleepily and sat up to stretch.

            “You sleep like a rock, you know that?” I teased. “We got you out of the car and all the way here and _now_ you wake up?”

            “I like to sleep,” He shrugged in a very Aeva-ish way, giving me a grin. She had a lot of his mother’s mannerisms.

            “What?” He asked, cocking his head and making his dark curls tumble to one side.

            “Nothing,” I smiled, kissing his head. “You’re cute is all.”

            “HOLDEN!” Phoenix called out as he and Aeva jogged over. Holden shoved his way out of my arms, falling quite a ways to the ground. I thanked god for his being half vampire as he landed harmlessly on his feet and sprinted to his brother. Phoenix launched immediately into a much exaggerated story of his day as Aeva arranged his books in his back pack.

            How could she do that? She honestly seemed to have forgotten all about Leah and Jason, mere meters away. I was fuming. I didn’t dare show it, but my insides were burning. I wanted nothing more than to tell him off for abandoning her like he’d done. But at the same time, there was a nagging reminder in the back of my head that if it hadn’t been for Jason, I would never have met Aeva. I would not have Phoenix. I would not have Holden. I wouldn’t have any of the good things in life.

            “That sounds pretty great,” I heard Holden say. “I mostly just slept all day and beat Daddy at chess.”

            “Alright boys,” Aeva laughed. “Let’s round it up. Phee, hand or cane?”

            “Hand,” Phoenix said instantly. “Daddy’s.” I grinned and stepped forward, taking my son’s hand as Aeva scooped up Holden. We started the walk back to the car, Aeva not even peeking at Leah. She was staring avidly at Holden as he recounted a dream he’d had for her.

            “Aeva?” Someone called. _Damn, damn, damn,_ I thought. We were so close to avoiding this.

            “Aeva Sanchez?” The voice called again. We all turned around to see none other than Jason Michaels hurrying towards us, Leah the werewolf in tow.

            “It’s Aeva Evanov-Wulff now, actually,” she corrected cooly as they approached. “Did you need something?”

            “Aeva,” Jason laughed, “it’s me!” Suddenly, he noticed Holden and his smile faltered. “Is that…?”

            “No,” Aeva snapped. “Who’s this?”

            “Oh, this is my fiancée, Leah Clearwater,” Jason said, almost covering the nerves in his voice. “Leah, this is Aeva Sanchez.”

            “Evanov-Wulff,” I interjected, a bit more acidly than strictly necessary. Jason looked at me and his eyes bulged. He actually took a step back.

            “Oh, er, my mistake,” he stammered. “Leah, honey, this is Aeva _Evanov-Wulff_. Aeva, who’s this?” He looked at her, still wide eyed. She shifted Holden to her other hip, seeming not to notice Jason had spoken at all.

            “Aeva,” he said a little louder. She sighed and threw him a look. Jason nodded at me.

            “This is Nathan,” she said, taking my hand. “My husband.”

            “Ah, I see,” Jason nodded. “So then that one is his,” he said, pointing at Holden.

            “They’re _both_ his, actually,” Aeva said, her voice so cold it was practically fogging. “You seem to think that you might have some sort of claim on one of our children. Why might that be, Jay?” He threw a panicked look behind him at Leah.

            “Does she know?” I asked, cocking my head.

            “Leah knows everything about me,” Jason laughed heartily. As soon as it was out of his mouth, I saw it in his head. He was lying.

            “That’s Holden,” I said, looking over at the boy in Aeva’s arms. He was staring at Jason as though measuring him. From the look on his face, he was not meeting standards.

            “Holden?” Jason said, looking anywhere but into his critical black eyes. “Sort of an odd name.”

            “I like it,” Leah said quietly. “I think it’s creative.”

            “Thank you,” Aeva said genially. It was clear she had no issue with Leah. “Phoenix picked it out.”

            “Who’s Phoenix?” Jason asked, looking back up at Aeva.

            “I am,” Phee said, stepping out from behind my legs where he’d been hiding. “I’m Phoenix Jaime.”

            “Oh, ah, nice to meet you,” mumbled Jason. It was clear he had noticed the resemblance. Leah seemed to have picked up on it too.

            “Aeva, love,” I said, handing Phoenix off to her. “Why don’t you go put them in the car. I’ll catch up in a minute.”

            “Alright then,” she said, giving me a little smile that clearly said she knew what I wanted to do. I leaned down and kissed her grinning mouth before she headed off with the boys.

            “So, you and Aeva seem close,” Jason commented as she walked away.

            “We’re married,” I snorted, dropping all pretenses of civility. Jason clearly registered the change in my demeanor and took another step back.

            “Don’t look so scared,” I snarled. “I just wanted to thank you.”

            “Th-thank me?”

            “Yeah,” I said, smiling maliciously. “I wanted to thank you for bailing on Aeva. Phoenix is really a great son. You’ve made me a very happy father.”

            “ _I’m_ that kid’s father,” Jason said defensively.

            “You were his sperm donor,” I hissed, taking a quick step forward. I didn’t slow myself down at all. “I’ll thank you not to act like you had anything more to do with him than that.”

            “Back up, parasite,” Leah growled, stepping between us. “I _know_. I can tell Aeva.” I could tell from her face she’d intended for that to shock me, but I just smiled.

            “It would be old news to her. Oh, and you’ll be hearing from Jacob soon,” I replied. “This won’t stay a secret.”

            “You don’t know Jacob,” she gasped, the color draining from her face.

            “No, I don’t,” I agreed. “But Edward and I go way back.”

            “What do you want?” Leah asked, looking panicked.

            “I just wanted to talk to Jason.” She stepped anxiously aside.

            “What are you?” Jason asked, shaking from head to toe.

            “A better man than you,” I snapped. “Now let’s get something straight right now: that little boy is _mine_. You have nothing to do with him. You will never have anything to do with him. He has no idea who you are and there is no reason that will ever have to change. You will stay out of my son’s life, is that understood?”

            “Yes,” he muttered, glancing down at his shoes.

            “Look at me,” I hissed. He raised his eyes nervously and I continued. “You will not _ever_ attempt to contact Aeva. I don’t care if you’re on your death bed and you need to see her and make peace, you will not call. She owes you absolutely nothing, least of all forgiveness. However, if Aeva ever decides to call you, you will answer. You will give her whatever she asks you for. You will do whatever she tells you to do. Do you understand?”

            “Yes,” he grunted. “But why wouldn’t you stop Aeva from calling me?”

            “I don’t force Aeva into things,” I said, lowering my voice. Jason’s ears turned red as he caught my jab.

            “Is there anything else?” Leah asked impatiently. I looked over at her; she was clearly very uncomfortable with the situation, and rightly so. I felt a pang of sympathy for her.

            “I’m sorry Leah,” I sighed. She seemed caught off guard by my change in demeanor. “You shouldn’t have had to find out like this. He should have told you.”

            “You have the doctor’s eyes,” she murmured, staring up at me. “Why doesn’t Aeva?”

            “Honey, they’re not related,” Jason laughed nervously.

            “She’s never needed to,” I said over him.

            “But the one boy, Holden,” she said, furrowing her eyebrows. “That one is yours? How can Aeva still be—,” she cast a glance at Jason, “—alright? Bella’s child nearly killed her.”

            “Bella didn’t know what to expect.”

            “Bella’s child?” Jason asked, perking up. “You’ve had another child?”

            “No,” Leah and I said in unison. He put his head down.

            “The males aren’t safe, you know,” she warned.

            “You can’t tell me anything Carlisle hasn’t already said,” I sighed. “Is Jason ever going to recognize me?” She caught my meaning, but it flew straight over Jason’s head.

            “I’ll tell him when you’re gone.”

            “Goodbye then.”

            I turned on my heel and started back towards the car. I heard a murmur and a dull thump behind me and looked back to see Jason unconscious on the ground. He didn’t seem to be taking the news well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a good example of how scenes change into new versions that fit the story better. This particular scene was written years ago, and you can see that in 1) that Holden still exists and 2) it's awful. 
> 
> There were a lot of things I had to change for a couple different reasons. First, I had to change a lot of the attitudes in this scene; Aeva and Nathan were unduly angry with Jason for not having thought about him for the past couple years. Also, adding in the wolves made this story feel messy. They were certainly an interesting component for Twilight, but they don't fit here and I didn't want to shoehorn them in. Also Jason could never land Leah. One of the last reasons I needed to change this scene was that it didn't let Jason grow at all in the past six years. He is still the same person he was in the first chapter of the first book. Jason needed to be different and do different things; whether or not he turned out better is up in the air, but he needed to be different. So I changed it to what you see in Autumn's Eyes 14: Normal.


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